Injustice in Piltover
by Kneesurgery
Summary: Being the sheriff of a city determined to have a criminal underbelly is tough, but some things even the best can't expect.


Caitlyn stalked around the table. She was in her element, this was her realm of ultimate terror. In the interrogation room, there wasn't a soul in Valoran that could hide from her pursuit of justice. The law always won in this room, it was her place of power, but as she sat down on one side of the table, the pink haired punk across from her seemed not worried at all.

Visually glancing around the room, the unknown woman who only identified herself as "Vi" clearly showed a complete disinterest in everything around her. Cait leaned forward in the metal chair and drummed her fingernails on the table, waiting for her enemy to offer weakness. It mattered not how long she would have to wait, she had faced stronger enemies in the years spent cleaning up the city, she would face stronger once again after this. Vi slumped back in the uncomfortable chair and put her hands behind her head, making herself comfortable.

Cait continued her steely glare into the delinquent's face, determined to break her before she could trust her. She knew it would work, from the old reports, this one wasn't for boredom, she'd have to offer up something eventually. Cait was patient, leaning back and crossing her arms in front of her stomach, she had broken harder ones before and would break harder ones again.

Hours in the chilled room passed, their muscles knotting up and cramping. Every once in a while Vi would shake herself around a little bit, releasing the stress in her body. To the contrary, Caitlyn remained motionless, never once doing any more than blinking. An eternity dragged by, neither woman doing anything to strengthen or weaken their position.

Caitlyn wanted her on the team. This annoying, callous brat knew more about the criminal underbelly in her city than anyone in the law enforcement ever had. Nay, she didn't want her, she needed her to take up the slack that Cait was starting to leave from joining the League of Legends. But it didn't matter how much gossip had said Vi was an enemy to criminals in Piltover, it didn't matter if she couldn't be trusted.

Then a sound echoed through the room, a strange, gurgling, hollow sound.

"I'm hungry," Vi said flatly, the hints of anger showing up upon her features. Cait froze in her already frozen position. That was so outlandish and unprecedented she didn't even know how to react.

As the silence once again began to settle over the room, Cait realized what she was witnessing. Across from her sat another version of herself, completely at home in the room where criminals cracked, the only worry she had was of food because that was all she cared about. It was sudden, but Cait realized this person might be the one she could trust the most.

"How would you like to put those gauntlets to use in the service of the law?" Caitlyn asked.

Without hesitation, Vi responded eagerly, "A free pass to crush the faces of those I already crush? Hell. Yes."

Caitlyn was about to launch into the standard procedure for giving out the shield that came with protecting Piltover, but before sound came out of her mouth, Vi interrupted with, "But seriously I am very hungry."

Months later Cait shook herself awake late at night. She was out on a stakeout with Vi, who had finally passed the aptitude test by not breaking the obstacle course. This was both a blessing and a curse, because it meant Vi could no longer be contained within the hexmobile, but on the plus side Vi could no longer be contained within the hexmobile. She looked over to the pink haired "officer" next to her and gave a questionative look.

"Naw," Vi said, clearly bored, "No moment, no nothing."

Cait looked down to the box of doughnuts between them they had decided to split throughout the stakeout. It was empty. "Did you eat all of them?" she asked, bordering anger at Vi's continued tendency to burn through calories.

"Naw," Vi said with the same tone before turning to look directly into Caitlyn's eyes and continuing in her most serious tone yet, "I gave them to the starving kids on the street."

Cait didn't move a muscle before rolling her eyes and saying, "you're so full of it."

They were sitting across the street from an intersecting alley between two tall buildings. An informant had dropped a tip that a serious illegal weapons deal would be going down in the alley sometime that night, so there they sat waiting all night if need be. Caitlyn ignored her compatriot's guffaws of laughter, focusing on the alley to hone in on the details, just in case, as always.

It was almost never that informant tips paid off, too many of them were sneaky diversions brought up by the only criminals that were left in her beautiful city, the devious. At times like this, hungry and cold in the late autumn night, Caitlyn regretted paying tips any heed, but she didn't have anything else better to do with the time so it was better than not.

While she leaned back and stretched to stay awake, some movement caught the corner of her eye. Three darkly clad men with briefcases walked down the street towards the alley. Caitlyn threw her right arm at Vi, hitting her hard enough to get her attention, but keeping her eyes trained on the three men.

They moved into the alley; a new group of men began approaching from the opposing side. Caitlyn grabbed her rifle and pulled the scope off of it, immediately using it to get a better look at what was going on in the alley. She saw three men facing the already observed three men, and they quickly popped open their three briefcases, filled to the brim with money. That was the signal.

"We go now," She said flatly, grabbing her rifle and slamming the scope back atop it. Bursting out of the hexmobile, Caitlyn snapped a button on the rifle, making sure the ammunition was set to non-lethal sedatives instead of the more permanant bullets. Knowing the criminals would already be aware of her presence from the movement out of the corner of their eyes, she yelled as the ran towards them, "**Piltover police, put down your weapons and place your hands on your he-**"

A bullet flew past her left ear, business as usual. She never finished the sentence before the fighting started. The magnetic hextech field generator had done it's job though, pushing the bullet aside to her left. The coolness of the air, the speed of the wind, the direction, the sheriff felt all of them as if a sixth sense had taken over. Cait dropped to a knee, put her eye to the scope, aimed, and fired. A thin bullet split apart right as it hit the nearest man in the shoulder, leaving a needle to stab into him. It delivered its payload of tranquilizer seamlessly. Cait rolled forward, reducing the drain on the hextech field by avoiding more bullets, but the effort left her breathless.

The furthest criminals began to react by this point, seeing the law enforcement closing in on them from behind. Cait saw them frantically swipe at something near their feet, initiating a focused explosion beneath their boots that sent them flying upward. They were able to grab the ledges of windows and begin climbing after their upward motion ceased. Cait repeated her firing process, losing not a second even to refill her lungs. Two down, four left, she muttered to herself as she pulled back the bolt on her rifle, releasing it and firing once again, striking the last criminal who was trying to get his poorly wired crossbow unjammed.

Turning her attention to the criminals that had leapt far into the air, she realized they were climbing the building with blades that stuck out the tips of their boots and fingers. She aimed and fired the rifle, a perfect shot to strike the neck of one of the climbers right as he was leaping up to another ledge. At the last second, he stopped the leap, jamming his hand into the wall to halt his advance, and the bullet flew far above him. The cheeky bastards were using some kind of bullet advance warning system, which made her job much more difficult, but explained a lot about why they'd be looking for weapons.

Screaming registered through her right ear as thunderous pounds of metal against stone powered past her. Vi, gauntlets on, powered up and charging in power, yelled the most frightening battlecry Cait had ever heard as she ran into the alley. Without even stopping for air, Vi charged the right gauntlet up from beneath her before suddenly releasing the energy as her fist flew into the air, her body almost dragged behind it. Twenty feet up she flew to the nearest criminal, grabbing his right foot with her left gauntlet and audibly crushing the bones within during the process.

Cait realized she needed to catch up and started running, but continued watching, her mouth ajar. Vi pulled the man off the wall and instead of falling with him, she let out a blood curdling scream with a fall of her gauntlet hitting him square in the chest downward. In reaction, the man shot toward the Earth, Vi herself being propelled further up, charging the other gauntlet as she did so. As the force lifting her started to stop, she threw her left gauntlet up, a strange field of energy appearing before her, dragging her forward and upward to another of the climbing men, probably fifty feet up now. The wall of the building she scaled dented and bent next to her furious charge up to the criminal. When she reached him, both massive gauntlets grabbed his chest as she kicked off from the wall.

In horror, Caitlyn looked on as Vi's gauntlets fired up once again, this time forcing the two bodies downward. Vi yelled as they sped towards the ground, an incoherent mess of expletives from the man she held using every edge on his gauntlets to attack her and stop her from their sure suicide to the cobblestone below. As they reached the bottom, the pink haired demon's yell turned to "**GET DUNKED!**" With an explosion of sound, stone and dirt was kicked up into the air as they crashed into the ground. Cait shied away from the debris, scared to look at what was left as the dust cleared, but unable to look away. Vi kneeled perfectly fine atop the clearly broken corpse of the man who had been trying to make an escape.

Unable to take time to think, Caitlyn grabbed a trap-pack from her back and threw it roughly 20 feet in front of her. Aiming up to the last criminal who had almost scaled the building on the left, she reached forward with her left hand and pulled back the net canister beneath the barrel, releasing it upward with the familiar strong power. Cait was pushed to the ground in the process. "What's with the cupcake?" Vi asked, voice slightly shaky from the display of chaos she had just shown.

Cait didn't answer, watching the net ball fly towards the target, opening up at the last second as he almost cleared the top of the wall. It completely enwrapped him, the force towards the center pulling him right off the wall in the process. He freefell for many feet, twisting and turning within the synthetic rope. Thirty feet to spare, the net burst open, and the last criminal immediately began trying to gain a hold on the side of the building.

"I don't understand what the cupcake will do," Vi said blankly. The falling man mad little progress, finally thrusting out both hands to the force Cait had suspected. Large springs launched out of his palms to the ground as he fell, hitting the ground and slowing the advance. Vi made to move forward to give chase as he would run after hitting the ground, but Cait reached out and grabbed her shoulder, stopping her.

The man fell the last five feet, directly onto the bright cupcake, triggering the trap mechanism hidden within. After a loud snap, he yelled in pain, dark metal visually digging into his ankle. "Oh my god," Vi said, exhibiting her ability to never be at a loss for words. The man in front of them struggled with the trap for a second, but realized the fruits of his labor were in vain quickly, letting out a large sigh.

Cait raised her hand in the air and twirled her finger around, signalling the officers at each end of the alley to come in and handcuff everything in sight. "Don't worry," she said smugly, "Prison is very comfortable." She gestured at Vi to follow and walked out of the alley.

The contrast from her fine boots clacking on the stones to Vi's heavy thumps could be heard over the chaos of movement as the law enforcement swarmed into the alley. As they left the throng, Cait exclaimed, "You're completely psychotic."

She heard Vi snicker behind her, saying, "I'll take that as a compliment, Cupcake."

Stopping in her tracks, Cait turned to see Vi's bright red face barely containing laughter. "Don't ever call me that."

"Ok," Vi said almost bursting with amusement, "Cupcake."

Cait rolled her eyes. That was going to get old.

She was disturbed by her reverie by some loud banging sound months later. Already knowing what it was, she didn't look up from her desk, instead refocusing on the paperwork from the previous day's arrest. "Falling asleep, Cupcake?" Vi's smug voice wafted across the piles of paperwork, the sunset filtering through the window to Cait's right.

"No, just unfocused lately," Cait admitted through the mental exhaustion. Vi usually came by before she left the office after a shift, but she wouldn't come in for any longer than to say bye if she wasn't-

"That's why I'm joining the League," Vi said with force.

Caitlyn leaned back and put her hands behind her head, letting out a long, tired sigh. Vi's name was highlighted by the pink-red sunset, her fiery determination in her eyes accentuated by the light. "Vi, I," she paused, "The city needs you here, needs you focused."

Vi shook her head, no tinge of amusement anywhere on her face. "Everything's been getting darn clean around here," she started, "We make a good team and the city shows it, let me take some of your stress."

Cait didn't say anything, her mind seemed to sluggishly walk around in circles. She was hesitant to accept help ever, and that was on purpose, but maybe she could let Vi help her again, but Vi was better here in Piltover, unless that was just her pretending so Vi wouldn't have to face the League, but it was hard to tell, but not really, Cait knew she had things handled herself, she didn't need help, unless she could accept help, but she was hesitant to accept help ever. Relaxing suddenly, she admitted defeat with herself, arms falling to her sides and shoulders suddenly releasing the tension of weeks. "I'll . . ." Cait paused for a second before taking a breath and going on, "I'll think about it, ok? I just want to get this paperwork done right now."

Vi smirked, moving over to the window and flopping down on the couch that had always sat beneath it. Caitlyn had previously slept often on that couch when she was early to the game, it amused her Vi would flop down in complete comfort on it. After a moment, Cait went back to her paperwork, thinking Vi would simply not say anything. "You don't have to pretend you like the busywork, you know," Vi said matter of factly.

"I'd rather people think I enjoy it than make them feel obligated to do it for me," Cait stated in reply without missing a beat. Vi simply snorted in reply, settling down on the couch under the sunset.

The minutes lengthened to hours while Cait lost herself in the paperwork. Then the sun finished going down and it was time to leave. Looking over to her right, she saw Vi had fallen asleep. Pushing her chair away from the heavy wooden desk, Caitlyn reached behind her and grabbed the rifle leaned up against the wall. Throwing the strap around her person, she stood, taking a deep breath as she did. She stretched herself backwards, throwing her arms up into the air to feel the blood flow return to normal in her muscles. Settling her eyes on Vi, Cait thought for a second how she would wake her.

Walking over to her, Cait threw a light punch at the ruffian's shoulder. Vi shifted lightly in response. "Come on, Vi, the sun's down, it's time to go home," she said.

Without opening her eyes, Vi sleepily replied, "This is my home." Not knowing what to say, Caitlyn just stood there. Vi opened her eyes and said, "Some rest would be good though." Their eyes met and for a second Cait felt something she hadn't felt before.

Her office exploded, flames within burning away everything within as the walls fell down, down down down to crush Caitlyn twenty feet below, unable to move. The heavy stone was ten feet away and growing less by the moment. Amongst the rubble Cait could see a piece of the couch, blown apart and scorched by the heat. Intense force grabbed her from the side and the world went out of focus from the speed. A loud crash, a heavy bang, the wind was pushed from Cait's lungs. Opening her eyes, she saw Vi crouched over her, the speed of the gauntlets must've saved them.

Everywhere was chaos, explosions echoed throughout the streets. Maniacal laughter echoed from far above, "Hah, you managed to save the hat lady, **FAT HANDS**." Caitlyn watched her friend's face grow in distress, the city behind her portrait erupting in flames. Something snapped in Vi, her brow furrowed further than it ever had before, the obscene figures of hate obscuring her beautiful face.

"Jinx," Vi muttered under her breath, the flames in her eyes growing to match the desecration of Caitlyn's beautiful city. Vi let Caitlyn down gently on the street before getting up and charging energy into her gauntlets. Screaming in rage, Vi gave chase to the destroyer of Piltover.

Cait looked up at the cloudy sky, a seemingly permanent cloud of ash and smoke blanketed the entire city by this third day of the chase. She had taken a very hard hit to the head back there when a blast had blown a brick into the back of her head, somewhere in the back of her mind she lazily realized that. Bringing her hands up to her head, Cait placed them on her face and comfortingly rubbing them in circled over her eyes. Maybe this was all some ridiculous dream about to end when she would wake up, it seemed as real as any dream anyway.

Manic laughter echoed through the air, "What are you gonna do, **FAT HANDS**, spank me?" Caitlyn was robbed of her rest, her city was on fire and she was just laying around. Where was her rifle anyway? Caitlyn took her hands from her face and forced herself to sit up, eyeing the broken urban landscape for the familiar stock that always comforted her when it was against her shoulder. Amidst the rubble and wreckage, she simply couldn't spot it.

"I have to find my rifle," Cait murmured to herself. She had to get up and help Vi, she had to stop the chaos, the order had to be restored. Disjointedly placing one body part in the right place at a time, Cait found herself standing, despite how the world spun before her eyes. Leaning forward slightly, she just tried to focus on the ground in front of her, and put one foot forward. Eventually she'd find the rifle and be of use to Vi. Thoughts, ideas, memories, and emotions swam together, nothing mattered but finding her rifle.

"Hey **FAT HANDS**, watch this!" the yell wafted over the air. Caitlyn tried to turn around to see what was happening, when the world ended right next to her. For a second, Cait saw the sky again, but she was moving through it, and everything went black.

* * *

In a bolt of lightning, Caitlyn opened her eyes. Sputtering and shivering she shook herself awake, every square inch in absolute pain. All she could see was blinding whiteness, her ears ringing so loudly nothing could be heard. Cait shut her eyes and forced herself not to move, which would certainly just be making everything worse.

Ever so slowly, the pain faded to a dull roar in her senses, then she braved opening her eyes again. Sluggishly they adapted, and things started to come into focus. A white ceiling glared down at her, promising difficulty sleeping during the day. A face jutted out into her vision suddenly. She realized she could hear it say something, "Hey, brat."

"Hey, pipsqueak," she replied automatically as the blond hair came into focus. Ezreal's smug look grinned down at her in victory. "I'm in the hospital," she stated flatly. Ezreal nodded. "I'm ok though?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ezreal said, nodding again, "No loss of limbs or permanent brain function, that is now that you've awakened."

He sat down to her right, and her head slowly followed his movement. "Why are you here? I thought you were in Shurima."

"Brat you've been out for four days," Ezreal said, "And I came back early because my home almost burned down."

"Almost?" Cait asked, almost in too much pain to hope, "What makes it almost?"

Ezreal leaned back against his chair, "Janna made a last minute plea to the summoners, so now Jinx fights for our amusement instead of in our city."

Cait stirred her arms, trying to propel herself upward while saying, "I have to get up and help."

But then Ezreal was above her again, pushing her down, "No no, for now you rest, you can get up tomorrow and make the world of doctors hate you for leaving early then."

Giving up the struggle because Ezreal would never let her leave, she sighed. Cait looked around, nothing interesting, hospitals were the most boring places in Valoran. "Can I at least get some bad hospital chocolate pudding then?"

Ezreal smirked, "Of course you can, I'll be right back."

* * *

Each day for two days Caitlyn said to herself she was getting up and leaving that day, but didn't seem to until the third day. Nobody visited her except Ezreal, who was all to happy to remind her of the time she got stuck in the sewers trying to show how stupid he was and he had to fish her out. He was always pretending to stand over her when he could, because he was too short to do so the rest of the time. When he departed on the second day, it was for the dig in the Shurima Desert once again. So on the third day Caitlyn finally forced herself to stand.

Walking through the repair efforts of her city, Caitlyn found her legs weak beneath her when they had seemed perfectly fine at the hospital. Forcing deep breaths, she suppressed the memories of the days she was under attack. Walking through the street proved difficult here and there as the roads were going to be the last to be repaired.

First she went home. Caitlyn discovered her home was actually almost entirely undamaged, and the inside was completely unblemished. Staggering in, she breathed in the comfort of her own environment. A quick change of clothes revealed two things. First, that rather scary looking burns were still healing on her left side, but would not be visible to anyone as the only parts that hadn't been magically healed were underneath where her clothing would be. Second, that her joints still would scream in protest to get into a normal outfit. Managing it anyway, Caitlyn was soon back out on the street, next headed to Jayce's lab to assign him repair work if he wasn't working already.

The sun was out, it would've been a nice day if a dark pallor hadn't settled over the city. Passing through the streets, a few citizens were out, wiring together whatever they could to rebuild their houses, most of them were at work inside though. Cait caught sight of Orianna on her left, the robot stretched down to grab a piece of debris from the ground, then sprung back upright, holding the thing to her face. It was a stuffed animal, half of it was burned away. Unable to understand, Orianna continued to stare at it as Cait walked past, wondering what Ori's father was up to.

It wasn't much longer before Cait reached Jayce's lab, although she was completely exhausted by the time she got there. Unable to admit defeat, she started climbing the stone stairs up to the door, when halfway up them, Vi walked out.

Her hair was completely messed up, her face lit up with a huge demonic grin, and her shirt in the process of being put on when she turned the corner and saw her partner. "C-Cait, you're out of the hospital!" she said, hurriedly slipping the other arm through the sleeve and pulling the fabric over her bra.

Cait looked up, seeing Vi's face despite the allure of what was below it. "Yeah," she said flatly.

Vi began zipping up the shirt before stammering, "I uh, I was just uh," she gestured towards the lab, "I was just asking Jayce if uh-"

"Vi, please," Cait said suddenly, "You and Jayce let off a little steam, you're both mechanics after all and could use less stress in the wake of recent events."

Vi finished putting on her shirt and slipped her arms through the armored vest while asking, "So . . . so you don't mind?" Then she caught herself and said, "Well, of course you don't, why would you."

Cait scrunched up her face and said, "Well I mind a little bit, you're practically coworkers after all, and policy is very clear." She turned around and started back down the stairs she had just started walking up. "I was thinking of doing some work, but I should probably just rest some more, so I'll see you later," she raised her voice to be audible in the other direction.

She stumbled back through the way she had come, the world a blur. Everything started to spin just before she got back into her home. Fumbling with the code to her door, the first of two wells began to overflow, but then the code was in and Cait was already shutting the door behind her.

Immediately collapsing on the floor, sprawled out, Cait felt a very old feeling, one she had never expected to feel again. A hole in her chest gaped, a rhythmic throbbing of blood sent dull pain up to her mind to be registered. Nothing mattered, she was empty, devoid of anything left to give. Her face was pressed against the cold wooden floor below her.

She had lost. Cait had lost, the law had failed. She had thought Vi too busy to be able to visit her in the hospital, but such was simply not the case. Her legs twitched, an unknown presence stirring them to move, and the loss bubbled up from Caitlyn's core, a full wave of sorrow washing over her. Not bothering to move, she sobbed into the floor below her, tears streaming down her face or dripping straight onto the floor. Sobs wracked her body, every muscle twitching with unseen intent. She shakily drew in breath after breath only to force them out again in horrified wails.

Her city had been burned, her enemy proved victorious, and her best friend had chosen another instead of her. Unable to distinguish the reason anymore, Cait simply curled into a ball and wailed into her knees, minutes dragging by noticeable only by the amount of tears that were shed. Her voice caught in her throat a couple times and she almost thought she was done, but then it started again, a new wave of pain that defied explanation.

"IT'S ALL JINX'S FAULT!" she screamed to herself. But no, she knew it was her fault, her fault that she had never been clear with Vi about how she felt, her fault that Vi had found in Jayce a better partner than Cait ever could've been. The new realization tore her apart, the pain shooting down her limbs and refracting through her stomach until Cait thought she would die. Instead, the tears simply continued, a new series of wails and sobs accompanying them.

It seemed like hours had passed when the flood finally stopped, and Cait looked around her. Nothing had moved but the rest of the world, as moonlight replaced the sunlight that had been present before. A numb emptiness filled Caitlyn's chest, and she vaguely realized she almost felt like vomiting. She unclenched her limbs and spread out on her back, the joints groaning in protest at the exercise she should not have been required to do.

Thoughts nearly escaped Caitlyn, but she remembered she did have one thing left to do before she could give up. She had to get up, and get to work. Her city needed her, even if she didn't want it. She sat up like she had after Vi had saved her life, numbly looking around for her rifle so she could get to work. A slight hiccup caught in her breath from the memory, but she was all out of tears. Pushing herself to stand, Caitlyn saw her rifle placed on a nearby counter, the wooden stock burned slightly from some explosion, but the moving parts themselves seemed fine.

She pulled out the clip and examined it before shoving it back into the gun. Picking it up, she threw the strap over her body to take it with her. In reality, she was no different than she had been years ago, all that mattered to her was justice, and she would see to it that it was upheld.

* * *

**Author's note**: Yeah, I'm a bit sorry for that, but I'd been toying with a similar idea for months so it was nice to get it out. Please review if you have anything to say, I'd love the feedback! Until next update then.


End file.
